VETFAMSA is a coalition of mental health providers other
health practitioners, educators, members of the VA and Veteran Services Agencies, Active and Retired Military and
their families, emergency services, and various other community members. We have
pledged to support all men and women of the armed services, and their families and loved
ones here in the Hudson Valley. We work to:

Raise awareness about the needs of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Identify needs of local military families as well as existing sources of support.

Improve access to services and other support for our veterans and their families.

In the News

July 7, 2013:
The online Journal News posted follow-up coverage of the VETFAMSA-hosted, Intersections Co-sponsored Sister Spirit: An All Women Veteran Civilian Dialogue (Co-facilitators Mary Wagner and Lori Arella) which took place on May 31, 2013.

"The Making and Un-making of a Marine" by Larry Winters

Born and raised in New Paltz, NY, Larry Winters entered the United States
Marine Corps after high school and served in Vietnam 1969-1970. Twenty-five
years later, by then a licensed mental health counselor at Four Winds
Hospital in Katonah, he returned to Vietnam with other health care
professionals to study P.T.S.D. in the Vietnamese people and to make peace
with his past. Larry is a widely published poet, men's group leader and
group psychotherapist. This is his story.

Helpful Articles/Documents

Great Resources to Support Military Children
- This document provides a sample – by no means a comprehensive list – of resources for supporting the
military child. Most of these can be read in full online or downloaded by going to the organization’s page
and clicking the article title.

Post-Deployment Stress: Helping Veterans and Their Families
- In all wars, healthy young people are trained to effectively perform
during violent, chaotic assault but at the risk of lasting psychological
damage. To survive, they are required to kill human beings never met; to
witness the violent death of comrades; to withstand the loneliness of being
continents away from home, in an unsafe place, lacking familiar food,
customs or language; to develop a keen awareness of risks both physical
(hyper-vigilance) and interpersonal (avoidance, suspicion, distrust.)

Symptom/Resource Guide
- What to look for...All military families will be affected by
deployment-related stress – before the service
member leaves, while they are gone, and after
they return. Combat training and experience is
like no other. Veterans and their families make
difficult adjustments often invisible to others.

Helpful Links

The
Veterans Crisis Line connects Veterans in crisis and their families and friends with qualified, caring VA responders through a confidential, toll-free hotline, online chat, and text-messaging service.

Veterans and their families and friends can call 1-800-273-8255
and Press 1,
chat online, or send a text message to 838255 to
receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.